Sidespeople are often the first people you meet as you come through the door. Although part of their role is to welcome people to the service their main function
is to give out the right books! With such a variety of services that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Along with the books you should receive a Pew Sheet which contains the readings for the Sunday and includes notices for the week ahead. In practice sidespeople do much more than give out books. They are responsible under the direction of the Churchwardens for making sure that all the practical jobs in preparation for worship are done, everything from putting out microphones to lighting altar candles. They take the collection and they also count carefully using “clickers” so that we know exactly how many are in church. The Church of England loves statistics and so do we. It is very helpful to look back in the service registers where numbers of those attending and receiving communion (when it is a communion service) are recorded and see how many people we might expect on any given Sunday. This is especially important at festival times, not only the major times of the church’s year such as Easter and Christmas but at times when we have our on major events and services. Large numbers attend the Festival Service which marks the opening of the annual Aldeburgh Festival, the Civic Service when the new mayor is welcomed, and Remembrance Sunday. We could always do with more sidespeople to join the rota. If you are interested in helping in this way please make contact. sidespeople@aldeburghparishchurch.org.uk